Garth also brings a little experience with retirement. He’s tried it a couple times, but when a Vegas boss sweetens the deal with a jet, like Steve Wynn did in 2009, you find a way to dust off the guitar and play for another three years.

This concert will be the final stop for Jones’ “Grand Tour,” which has already begun.

As “The List” gets even bigger and more crowded with notable names, we expect tickets will become that much harder to come by. We can name 17,000 fans, or whatever the capacity of the Bridgestone might be that night, in the 37216 zip code alone. Throw in Music Row, and people will be spilling out the doors.

Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster retail outlets or by calling 1-800-745-3000.

Country music artist Lorrie Morgan announces her new dinner show at the Gaylord Opyrland Resort & Convention Center during a press conference Wednesday, July 18, 2012 in Nashville, Tenn. (GEORGE WALKER IV / THE TENNESSEAN)

Lorrie Morgan and Shrek will be the latest additions to Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center’s holiday programming in 2012, executives announced during a press conference this morning on the resort’s grounds.

Derek McCann, vice president and hotel manager, revealed Morgan is set to unveil her new Enchanted Christmas Dinner Show this year and “Shrek” will make its debut at ICE!, which will be dubbed Shrek the Halls.

As they have in years past, 40 artisans from Harbin, China will travel to Nashville to carve 2 million pounds of ice into detailed, life-like sculptures that this year will be fashioned to look like characters from Dream Works popular animated cartoon “Shrek.”

Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes will return to the Grand Ole Opry House, but this year they are adding a new 3d scene featuring Santa and his reindeer which will take audiences on a journey through New York City.

“My wife and I really wanted to do an event for breast cancer,” Lawrence said. “She had a scare a few years ago and she’s had some issues in her family and we thought it was a good time to start it. It’s such a good cause and there’s nothing better than a golf tournament and a gala event where everybody can come out and have a good time.”

“This stage is packed with great hit-makers for four days, and it’s free,” said Steve Moore, CMA Chief Executive Officer. “We invite everyone to come and enjoy the great music on the Chevrolet Riverfront Stage.”

Individual tickets to the nightly shows at LP Field, which this year feature artists including Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton and Brad Paisley, are on sale now through Ticketmaster for $40 plus fees. Four day packages to the event start at $125. For tickets, call Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or log on to www.ticketmaster.com. For more information on the CMA Music Festival, visit www.cmafest.com.

A singer-songwriter of unusual clarity and intelligence, Rhody came to Nashville in 1977 with major label ambitions. Thirty-five years later, he’s not a major label guy. He’s his own tour bus driver, and his tour bus isn’t a bus at all. He’s played all sorts of big music festivals, but his tour schedule is filled with small venues, where patrons come to sit and listen.

He’s a Bluebird Cafe guy, not a Bridgestone Arena guy, and though his songs have been heard by millions of listeners, they’ve mostly been heard in versions by The Oak Ridge Boys, Lorrie Morgan, George Jones and other stars. Like many of Nashville’s finer troubadours, his career is owed to quiet tenacity and an enduring muse, not to high-powered management.

Rhody’s is a D.I.Y., scenic-life existence.

“I’m the booking agent, and the promoter, the publicist, the driver, the artist and the writer,” he says. “The challenge really is finding enough solitude or time alone to let my brain chill. But I do pick up my guitar, regularly, no matter what, and have ongoing fragments of ideas, lines and phrases that I write down on the spot.”

Jan. 13, 1930 - Oct. 31, 2011

Liz Anderson, an influential songwriter and recording artist who was instrumental in Merle Haggard’s early career, died Monday, Oct. 31, at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville, of complications from heart and lung disease.

Born Elizabeth Jane Haaby, Mrs. Anderson spent her early childhood in Pine Creek, Minn., a place she described as “a cross in the road,” near the Canadian border. When she was 13, the family moved to Grand Forks, N.D., where she met Casey Anderson: She was 16 when the couple married.

Daughter Lynn was 3 years old when the family moved to California, and Mrs. Anderson began writing songs around 1957, just as the California country music scene was blossoming. Del Reeves was the first country artist to record a song Mrs. Anderson wrote, and in 1961 his version of Mrs. Anderson’s “Be Quiet Mind” became Reeves’ first Top 10 country hit.

Click to see a gallery of photos from Tracy Lawrence's past turkey frys (this image of Jason Aldean and Lawrence in 2007: Jeanne Reasonover/The Tennessean).

Country singer Tracy Lawrence and numerous industry pals fried more than 400 Thanksgiving turkeys last week, with the birds going to feed people at the Nashville Rescue Mission and Wilson County’s homeless community.

Slated to be married in the spring of 2011, Lambert and Shelton found themselves sharing space with new entertainer of the year and show co-host Brad Paisley as the toasts of the awards evening. Lambert won top female vocalist, album and video (with director Trey Fanjoy) prizes, while Shelton won for male vocalist and musical event (with Trace Adkins, for “Hillbilly Bone”).

Paisley, who co-hosted the show with Carrie Underwood, had been nominated five times as entertainer but had lost in past years to Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney. His H20 tour has drawn more than 750,000 fans, and he has notched 10 straight No. 1 songs.

“My hero, Little Jimmy Dickens, has a saying,” Paisley said. “That’s if you see a turtle on a fence post, it had help getting up there. I feel just like a turtle on a fence post at this point.”

In an emotional speech, Paisley went on to thank his grandfather, who told him if he learned to play guitar he’d never be alone.